Research Scientist, Surface Treatment

Role Objective

This role builds Manastus surface treatment capability for green propulsion, from the laboratory bench to flight. You will decide how we clean, treat and verify every propellant-wetted surface. Your results will set how long our hydrogen peroxide-based green monopropellant stays stable in flight hardware.

Role Overview

We need a Research Scientist in Navi Mumbai with a PhD and 5 to 10 years of post-PhD industry experience. This is a senior, hands-on role.

The central technical challenge is surface-driven decomposition. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes faster when it touches a surface, and the rate changes with the material, its surface condition and trace metal contamination. Stainless steel, aluminium alloys, welds, polymers and seals must each stay compatible with the propellant for the full mission life. Test methods that customers and agencies accept must show this result.

You will work at the intersection of electrochemistry, surface science, process engineering and propulsion. The design, propellant, manufacturing, quality and test teams will use your results to make engineering decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Rank the root causes of decomposition in our data, and build the research roadmap with pass or fail criteria.
• Define the people, equipment, budget, vendors and treatment route that the roadmap needs, and present them for founder approval.
• Set measurable decomposition targets for each alloy family, meet them on schedule, and report progress to the founders.
• Establish the cleaning, pickling and passivation route for every alloy family, with bath controls and cleanliness limits.
• Release the surface treatment specification, and keep it valid when the hardware or the vendors change.
• Take each treatment from coupons to welded assemblies and flight-representative hardware, and close any gap between the results.
• Qualify the production route at an approved vendor or in house, and add a second source to the same specification.
• Deliver the storage life case, with its margin, and the data pack, and defend both in customer and agency reviews.
• Run the process under statistical control, close every non-conformance by root cause, and hold cost and lead time to plan.
• Build and lead the team, and train it to run the process and acceptance tests without you.

Experience & Background

• A PhD in Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Corrosion Engineering, Electrochemistry, Surface Engineering, Chemical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Between 5 and 10 years of post-PhD industry experience in surface treatment, passivation or corrosion science.
• Several surface treatment or passivation processes that you developed and documented yourself, for different alloys or geometries; at least one runs in production today.
• A strong foundation in passive film electrochemistry: potential-pH diagrams, mixed potential theory, pitting and transpassive behavior.
• Hands-on experience with XPS, EIS, SEM with EDS, potentiodynamic polarisation and profilometry, their artefacts, and cross-checks between them.
• A record of processes taken from bench result toqualified production, as the lead for the team, vendors and budget.
• Experience of a Nadcap chemical processing or AS9100 audit, and knowledge of standards such as ASTM A380, ASTM A967, AMS 2700 and ASTM B912.
• Relevant backgrounds include semiconductor wet processing, pharmaceutical stainless steel water systems, oil and gas corrosion, nuclear, electroplating and anodising, and aerospace chemical processing. Experience in oxidiser service, such as oxygen cleaning to ASTM G93 or hydrogen peroxide, is an advantage, but it is not necessary.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• A senior scientist who turns a broad objective into an approved plan, and is accountable for what the team delivers.
• Builds methods and test rigs where none exist, does the critical experiments personally, and needs no senior above them in the subject.
• Reports data with its uncertainty, says clearly what the data does not show, and changes position only on evidence.
• Designs safety into each process, stops a run when something looks wrong, and reports problems early.

What we offer

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive health insurance
• High ownership and visibility, with direct access to leadership
• Support for learning, conferences, and research exposure
• Subsidised lunch plan

If you are motivated by solving complex challenges at scale, we would like to hear from you.

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.